The collections of A. E. Reuss were missing for a long period of time. When they were rediscovered they were stored in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. The associated catalog is still missing. Since many of the Cretaceous foraminifers described by Reuss are assumed to be widespread around the world, it is desirable to have his original material as a reference when classifying the specimens found in drillings and natural exposures. As quite a lot of them are usable as index fossils, they are of special value in the exploration for oil and gas.

Kerguelen Islands are predominantly volcanic lands, thus fossil references are very uncommon. However, its Miocene fossils are of specific interest for understanding migration routes of some taxa during the Cenozoic, given the intermediary position of Kerguelen with various continents. Despite this fossil rarity, we studied herein hundreds of nodules corresponding to the sole known fossil brachyurans (and unique Decapoda) from Kerguelen both for their systematics and their preservation. Indeed, these crabs display some internal fragile structures that are rarely fossilized, such as the gills’ branchial lamellae, preserved in volume. The preservation of these gills and their diagenetic features were documented through traditional imagery (SEM), including morphological comparison to modern gills, and with petrographic and geochemical analyses (EDS, X-ray diffractometry). Some cheilostome bryozoans were observed as probable foulers of the crabs carcasses. The fossil material corresponds to a new cancrid crab (Romaleon franciscae n. sp.) and its occurrence may imply a novel route from South America westward for the geographic migration of the genus Romaleon, since its Cretaceous emergence. The cup-shape and the number and the organization of the gills in these fossil Cancridae specimens are similar to those observed in their extant representatives. Gill preservation in 3D is linked to very early phosphatization of the system during diagenesis, as shown by the nodule matrix, and likely to deposition of a thin clayey cover on the soft-tissues. The implication of intrinsic phosphorous in the differential phosphatization of the crabs’ anatomy remains difficult to determine.

The Antiklinalbugt Formation of northeast Greenland comprises peritidal to subtidal carbonate sediments, deposited in shallow shelf settings during an early Tremadocian transgressive-regressive megacycle. The succession of shales and microbial, muddy and grainy limestone, with minor dolostone at the base and top, terminates at the cryptic Fimbulfjeld disconformity. The formation has yielded trilobites collected on Ella Ø, Albert Heim Bjerge, and Kap Weber by C. Poulsen (1920s and 1930s), J. W. Cowie and P. J. Adams (1950s), and during recent field studies in 2000 and 2001. The fauna includes dimeropygids Tulepyge cowiei and T. tesella n. spp., hystricurids Millardicurus and Hystricurus, and several species of Symphysurina. Micragnostus chiushuensis (Kobayashi, 1931) is rare, as are Chasbellus sp., Clelandia sp., and Lunacrania?. The presence of several Symphysurina species places the Antiklinalbugt Formation within the Symphysurina Zone. Chasbellus indicates the upper (lower Ordovician) part of the Symphysurina Zone for the lower upper Antiklinalbugt Formation. Conodonts place the middle lower formation in the Cordylodus intermedius conodont Biozone, the lower upper part in the Cordylodus angulatus conodont Biozone and the uppermost part in the Rossodus manitouensis conodont Biozone. This combined fauna is characteristic of the upper Skullrockian Stage of the Ibexian Series, with the lower part of the Antiklinalbugt Formation lying within the uppermost Cambrian of North America, and the upper part within the lower Ordovician. The entire formation lies within the global Tremadocian Stage of the early Ordovician.

We examine the morphological variation of a Paleozoic pterineid during a time of relative ecological and taxonomic stability in the Middle Devonian Appalachian Basin in central and eastern New York. We discuss the taxonomic status of the Middle Devonian bivalve Actinopteria boydi (Conrad, 1842) and quantify the variability of its shell disk as well as the width and angle of the auricles and sulci of this otherwise character-poor bivalve species using geometric morphometric techniques employing Cartesian landmarks. We compare variants from three stratigraphic levels (Skaneateles, Ludlowville, and Moscow formations) and from different habitats characterized by lithofacies.

The phenotypic variation observed in our data does not amount to an overall directional shift in morphology, i.e., they constitute reversible changes of morphology in a single variable taxon. Our study finds small-scale variation in morphology that represents evidence for ecophenotypic variation through ~3–4 Myr. Differences in substrate coupled with water energy seem to impact this taxon’s morphology. Although no clearly separated groups can be observed, material from muddy facies develops variants with, on average, rounder and broader shell disks than are found in material from silty facies. This morphology could have increased the flow rate of water channeled over the posterior shell portion thereby improving filtration rate, which is especially beneficial in environments with low water energy.

Lidaconus palmettoensis n. gen. and sp. is a recently discovered fossil from the Lower Cambrian Harkless Formation (Bonnia–Olenellus Zone) in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The conoidal fossils were originally calcareous and have been replaced by silica. The cones are distinctive in their consistent morphology, the presence of weak annulations, and the lack of any internal structures such as septa, tabulae, or dissepiments. Because of the paucity of diagnostic characters due to the simple morphology and the lack of original microstructure, taxonomic affinities are uncertain.

Tang et al. (2019) described new specimens of carbonaceous compression fossils from the early Cambrian Hetang Formation in South China, for which they established the new taxon Cambrowania ovata Tang and Xiao in Tang et al., 2019. Tang et al. (2019) interpreted these fossils as the remains of metazoans, representing either the carapaces of bivalve arthropods, or early life-cycle stages of sponges. We contest the animal affinity of these fossils; instead, we propose that the specimens described as Cambrowania ovata are actually large Leiosphaeridia—in other words, collapsed hollow organic spheroidal acritarchs. The features described by Tang et al. (2019) all fall into the morphology of carbonaceous compressions of Leiosphaeridia with pyritized/baritized folds and compaction wrinkles. Such Leiosphaeridia are a common component of Cambrian (and older) siliciclastic deposits, and frequently exhibit such a pattern of pyritization, baritization, and encrustation with other diagenetic minerals.

Silicified and well-preserved specimens of the new orchocladine anthaspidellid genus and species, Virgaspongia ichnata, the rhizomorine haplistiid, Haplistion sphaericum Finks, 1960, and various root tufts, and the new hexactinellid species Steioderma hadra are reported from the Brentwood Member of the Morrowan Bloyd Formation from the Sulphur City quadrangle, in the Ozark Mountains of northwestern Arkansas. Virgaspongia is a subcylindrical branched or unbranched sponge that lacks a spongocoel and has a dendroclone-based skeleton in which trabs diverge upward and outward from an axial region. It is abundant here but is one of only a few anthaspidellid genera known from the Pennsylvanian. This is the first record of Haplistion from Pennsylvanian rocks of Arkansas, although the genus is widespread in upper Paleozoic rocks. The new hexactinellid species, Stioderma hadra, also documents the first occurrence of that genus from Arkansas and in Morrowan rocks. Only fragments were recovered but the swollen grotesque spicules, of several sizes, that make the fused dermal layer and outer sponge wall are distinctive, particularly where combined with an inner layer(?) or root tuft of monaxons of various sizes. Two different root tufts and one demosponge wall fragment(?) also occur in the collection.

Disarticulated elements from three individuals of Mammuthus cf. M. columbi (Falconer) and one individual of Bison cf. B. latifrons (Harlan) were recovered from an excavation in gravelly, sandy clay of the Colma Formation at the southeast base of Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, California. This is the most abundant collection of late Pleistocene terrestrial vertebrates reported from San Francisco, and only the fourth record from excavations in the city proper. The Mammuthus-Bison association indicates a Rancholabrean age, and elements of these two taxa from this site have been radiocarbon dated at 25,380 ± 1,100 years B.P. Geologic setting, lithology, associated diatoms and pollen, and preservation of the bones suggest that these animals were buried rapidly in a boggy environment on the west margin of the broad valley now occupied by San Francisco Bay.

During recent years, there has been an increase in the number of papers that include taxonomical descriptions of brachiopods belonging to the order Athyridida. In these papers, the authors do not use the same spelling while referring to suprageneric taxa (e.g., Dagys, 1974; Grunt, 1989; Cooper and Dutro, 1982; Brunton, 1984; Modzalevskaya, 1985; Wang Yu and Rong Jia-yu, 1986; Carter, 1988; Alvarez, 1990) and commonly names or adjectives such as 〈athyroids〉, 〈athyridoids〉, 〈athyridids〉, 〈athyrids〉, 〈athyridaceans〉, 〈athyrididaceans〉 etc. vary considerably.

The new flexible crinoid Para clidochirus n. gen. is described, with P. keyserensis (Springer, 1920) as the type species. A new species, P. schultzi, is described from the Late Devonian of Idaho.

The tricranoclad demosponge Hindia sphaeroidalis Duncan, 1879, is reported as a common silicified sponge in the basal dolomite of the Deep Lakes Member of the Upper Ordovician Fish Haven Formation of northeastern Utah for the first time. A small juvenile orchoclad anthaspidellid, Hudsonospongia? sp., is also the first of that family reported from Fish Haven beds and the Deep Lakes Member. Both taxa are from localities on the eastern slope of Mount Magog, north of Tony Grove Lake, in the Bear River Range, Cache County, east of Logan, Utah.

The description of a specimen of Aturia coxi from the uppermost Miocene of central Japan provides additional data on this poorly known Neogene species. Aturia coxi Miller is the youngest representative of this nautiloid genus, which is known from the middle to upper Miocene formations of the Indo-Western Pacific and became extinct at the end of Miocene. In addition to the presence of Aturia coxi, the abundance of tropical and subtropical benthic molluscs indicates that tropical molluscan faunas invaded mid-latitude waters around Japan in the latest Miocene. The extinction of Aturia and other Miocene molluscan genera marks the end of the Miocene Epoch.

The Pratt Ferry beds are a three meter thick bioclastic carbonate unit containing the Pygodus serrus–P. anserinus conodont zone boundary and lying just below the Nemagraptus gracilis graptolite zone at a single locality in Alabama. Telephina Marek at Pratt Ferry and other eastern North American localities is represented by at least six species. These are judged widespread and in part conspecific with Scandinavian or Asian forms of similar age. Most of the fifteen Appalachian telephinid species proposed by Ulrich (1930) are reviewed and some synonymized. Bevanopsis Cooper is present, extending its stratigraphic range via B. buttsi (Cooper). The original description of Ceraurinella buttsi Cooper is augmented. Other recorded but poorly represented genera include Ampyxina, Arthrorhachis, Calyptaulax, Hibbertia, Lonchodomas, Mesotaphraspis, Porterfieldia, and Sphaerexochus. The entire faunule represents a mixture of ‘inshore’ and ‘offshore’ or planktonic faunal elements rarely seen elsewhere in the latest Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) of eastern North America.

Paleontologists have long speculated that the bizarre, giant Ordovician gastropods Maclurites Le Sueur, 1818 and Maclurina Ulrich and Scofield, 1897 lived more like suspension-feeding oysters than typical algivorous snails. Geometric and eigenshape morphometrics demonstrate the plausibility of this lifestyle, but with a twist. The apertures of these gastropods were small ellipsoids when young, transitioning rapidly to polygonal morphologies at maturity, with angulations (sinuses) occurring in regions associated with development of mature ctenidia (gills) and enhanced stability on the seafloor. Combined with knowledge of extant suspension-feeding gastropods and functional and phylogenetic analysis of the anatomy of other fossil relatives, this ontogenetic pattern suggests these snails began life as typical mobile algae-grazers, but switched to sedentary suspension-feeders as they aged.

The early geologic history of family Pinnidae, a diverse and abundant component of mud-dominated shallow marine environments of the late Paleozoic, is obscured by ill-defined genus and species concepts. Mistakes in descriptions and reconstructions have provided a basis for suggestions that older taxa in the family differ from younger taxa and may not belong in family Pinnidae. This report provides improved documentation that removes the basis for the concept of divergence. Late Paleozoic genera and species have definite pinnid bivalve characters, including a dorsomarginal fold that holds the ligament, a thick outer columnar prismatic shell layer, and an equivalved, triangular shell, all of which provide evidence for confident assignment of the genus to family Pinnidae. The suggested synonymy of Aviculopinna with Pteronites is invalid, and genus Aviculopinna is limited to occurrence in Permian strata. The two genera belong in different families. A neotype is designated for genus Aviculopinna type species Aviculopinna pinnaeformis Geinitz from Gera, Germany, and a lectotype for Aviculopinna neukirchensis Langenhan from Nowy Kościół, Poland. Inferences on the life habits of Aviculopinna based on its occurrence in Poland are presented. An evaluation of the subterminal beak versus terminal beak concept in pinnids is presented and conclusion presented that there are few data available to support the concept or to test it. In its present form, the concept has no utility in the study of pinnid bivalves.

The early Miocene site of Wadi Moghra, Qattara Depression, Egypt, is important for interpreting anthracothere (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) evolution, because the Moghra sediments preserve a higher diversity of anthracotheres than any other pene-contemporaneous site. New specimens from Moghra are described and form the basis for the systematic revision of Moghra anthracotheres provided here. Among the important discoveries recently made at Moghra is the first complete skull of Sivameryx moneyi. Other new specimens described here include two new species of Afromeryx, and a new genus and species, all of which are unique to Moghra. A review of biogeographic information supports the conclusion that three of the Moghra anthracotheres (Brachyodus depereti, B. mogharensis, and Jaggermeryx naida, n. gen. n. sp.) are members of late surviving lineages with a long history in Africa, while three other species (Afromeryx grex, n. sp., A. palustris, n. sp., and Sivameryx moneyi) represent more recent immigrants from Eurasia.

Lower and middle Cambrian strata of the eastern Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada, were deposited in a semi-enclosed basin along the eastern flank of the Mackenzie Arch. The Mount Clark Formation is predominantly composed of nearshore sandstone and is overlain by deeper water siltstone, mudstone, and carbonates of the Mount Cap Formation. The contact between these formations is interpreted as a flooding surface. Trilobite biostratigraphy indicates the presence of the traditional upper Olenellus through Glossopleura zones (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4–Miaolingian, Wuliuan) and suggests the flooding surface is diachronous, spanning the Dyeran-Delamaran boundary. Above the Olenellus Zone, the Amecephalus arrojosensis-Eokochaspis nodosa Zone, the new Aitkenaspis keelensis Zone, the new Albertelloides mischi Zone, and the Glossopleura walcotti Zone are recognized. Whereas the older zones are comparable to those in other areas of Laurentia, the trilobite faunas in the Albertelloides mischi and Glossopleura walcotti zones show a greater abundance of zacanthoidids and dolichometopids. They also have a lower diversity of ptychoparioids and oryctocephalids, and lack agnostoids, eodiscoids, dorypygids, and ogygopsidids. This suggests that zacanthoidids and dolichometopids were able to tolerate conditions that were unfavorable to the other groups, probably related to semi-restricted conditions in the basin. Four endemic species exhibit characteristics that are considered paedomorphic. This developmental process took place in three separate lineages, suggesting that heterochrony was also environmentally provoked.

New taxonomic names are authored by Handkamer and Pratt. New genera are Eobathyuriscus, Sahtuia, Mexicaspidella Aitkenaspis, Dodoella, and Mackenzieaspis. New species are Bolbolenellus dodoensis, Eobathyuriscus mackenziensis, E. macqueeni, Glossopleura youngi, Sahtuia carcajouensis, Aitkenaspis keelensis, Albertelloides eliasi, Dodoella kobayashii, Mackenzieaspis parallelispinosa, and M. divergens.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/a10a2470-853c-4ce8-bf62-7de1d2c99fab.

Knowledge on Early Jurassic marine fossil invertebrates from Argentina is very uneven. Particularly, faunas from Chubut Province received less attention and were thought to be poorer than those from the Neuquén Basin. Nevertheless, an updated revision of bivalves shows that some groups, such as the Protobranchia, were relatively more diverse in Chubut than in Neuquén during late Pliensbachian–early Toarcian times. Only four species are known from the southern areas of the Neuquén Basin, while seven species (three of them new) are here described from Chubut, belonging to the families Nuculidae, Nuculanidae, Polidevciidae, and Malletiidae. The new species are: Palaeonucula feruglioi n. sp., Ryderia tehuelchana n. sp., and Phaenodesmia? piatnitzkyi n. sp. The material is well preserved and allows a detailed analysis of their hinge regions and other internal characters. The presence in Chubut of Palaeoneilo? patagonidica (Leanza) is confirmed, which, along with Praesaccella ovum (Sowerby), are the only two species in common with the Neuquén Basin. The new species Ryderia tehuelchana, belonging to a genus that had a wide global distribution between Rhaetian and Toarcian times, but which was known from South America only for upper Triassic deposits, is of special paleobiogeographic interest. These bivalves are restricted to normal marine environments, and due to their detritivorous feeding habits they only live in organic-rich bottoms as very active shallow burrowers.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/41225cf2-b7de-4ff0-ad20-ce0d738799a9

Cheilocerataceae are unique among Pennsylvanian and Permian ammonoids in having maintained the primitive sutural condition in which the ventral lobe remained entire or, in rare cases, incipiently bifid. The mature ventral lobe of all contemporary ammonoids is either prominently bifid or weakly trifid. Identity of these younger cheilocerataceans is confirmed by an additional distinctive feature, the phyletic migration of the siphuncle from a ventral position to lie close to the dorsum within the dorsal septal flexure.

Transformation of the ancestors, the Mississippian cheiloceratacean family Prionoceratidae, to produce the root-stock of post-Mississippian Cheilocerataceae was by progenesis (paedomorphosis and neoteny). This involved linear size reduction by a factor of ten, and retention to maturity of the rounded (formerly juvenile) character of the lateral lobe.

Two families are represented in the Pennsylvanian, both probably derived from a common prionoceratid ancestor. The monotypic Maximitidae (Atokan-Missourian) are distinguished by ontogenetic migration of the siphuncle from a central to ventral-marginal position, with concurrent development of incipient bifurcation of the ventral lobe in some forms. The more diverse and longer ranging Pseudohaloritidae are represented in the Pennsylvanian (Missourian and younger) by Neoaganides, an unornamented form with simple sutures that persisted to the extinction of the superfamily in the highest Permian Changhsingian Stage. During the Permian, the Pseudohaloritidae underwent explosive diversification, displayed especially by the Wordian endemics of South China. This involved bizarre combinations of shell features that are duplicated by some Mesozoic ammonoids but are rare or unique for the Paleozoic. Included are coarse ribs and nodes, and mature modifications comprising divergent coiling, one or two subterminal constrictions, and one or two pairs of spectacular lappets. In addition both the lobes and saddles may be irregularly but extremely denticulate to give “ceratitic” and “ammonitic” sutures, and the siphuncle is generally close to the dorsum. No fully plausible explanation has yet been provided for these late evolutionary developments.

All previously described taxa in the Maximitidae and Pseudohaloritidae are reviewed. New taxa include a species of Maximites that is dimorphic, three new forms of Neoaganides from the Permian of Texas and Iran, plus the first representatives of Pseudohalorites and Shouchangoceras from North America. A new genus (Sosioceras) is established for Brancoceras pygmaeum Gemmellaro. It differs from Neoaganides in having a doubly constricted aperture at maturity and well developed runzelschicht. This monotypic genus is dimorphic also, and strong dimorphism may be characteristic of Permian Pseudohaloritidae.

Sutures provide the basis for subdivision of the Pseudohaloritidae into subfamilies. The Shouchangoceratinae are “goniatitic,” the Pseudohaloritinae are “ceratitic,” and the Lanceoloboceratinae are “ammonitic.” The inadequately known Yinoceratinae, referred previously to the Thalassoceratidae, are shown to be closely related to their geographic and stratigraphic associates, the Lanceoloboceratinae. It is doubtful whether separation of the two subfamilies can be maintained. Although features such as sculpture and degree of development of serration of the suture are highly variable at the species level, gross changes in these features and in the form of the mature aperture are nonetheless the best taxobases for genera and species since the number of lobes remained constant at eight.

Two species of solitary rugose corals occur in Late Ordovician strata of the St. Lawrence Lowland. Grewingkia canadensis (Billings, 1862) appears in the upper part of the Nicolet River Formation (upper St. Hilaire Member) and is far more common in the overlying Pontgravé River Formation. A single specimen of Streptelasma divaricans (Nicholson, 1875) is known from the Pontgravé River. Their presence confirms that this area is situated within the Richmond Province and that the upper Nicolet River, as well as the Pontgravé River, is Richmondian in age. Solitary Rugosa were introduced to this biogeographic province during an early Richmondian transgression, marked in the upper Nicolet River Formation by a coarser clastic interval. That event permits correlation between the St. Lawrence Lowland in the eastern part of the Richmond Province and the North American type Upper Ordovician (Cincinnatian Series) of the Cincinnati Arch region in the western part of the province.

A comparative morphologic, paleoecologic, and biostratinomic analysis of solitary corals indicates that normal, low-energy conditions were interrupted occasionally by high-energy events (probably storms) during deposition of the upper Nicolet River and Pontgravé River Formations. Water depth increased northwestward in the St. Lawrence Lowland area. Deposition of these siliciclastic prodelta to delta front sediments was generally continuous and the sedimentation rate was usually high because of rapid basin subsidence and comparatively close proximity to the Taconic Mountains. In the western part of the Richmond Province, farther from the source area, carbonate as well as clastic sediments accumulated, periods of nondeposition were more frequent, and the sedimentation rate was relatively low. Corals disappeared from the St. Lawrence Lowland area during the Richmondian, when delta top facies of the Bécancour River Formation succeeded the Pontgravé River Formation due to a glacio-eustatic regression and progradation of the Queenston Delta.